Research on the Agro-Food Trade Balance of Romania

Abstract

. One of the founding principles of the European Union was free trade between all member states. In Romania, an EU member since 2007, the trade deficit for agro-food products has grown rapidly in recent years, reaching €8.3 billion in 2020, €1.08 billion higher than in the previous year. The aim of the paper is to highlight the evolution of trade and trade balance with the main categories of agro-food products in Romania. In order to achieve this aim, indicators contributing to the trade balance were analysed. The analysed indicators are import, export, and trade balance for cereals, vegetables, and meat, at the Romanian level, in the period 2010-2020. In addition, the SPSS software was used to estimate the trade balance for the next decade. Cereals show a positive medium-term outlook driven by strong demand, thus in 2020 Romania's trade balance with cereals recorded a surplus of 7.8 million tons, equivalent to 1.4 billion euros, while the trade balance with vegetables and meat recorded a trade deficit of 625 thousand tons, and 381 thousand tons, respectively.